Parkinson's Enhances Creativity

http://www.aftau.org/newsroom?9f76eee6-35af-492d-979a-47f86738e6a8

Prof. Rivka Inzelberg of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Sagol Neuroscience Center at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, documented the exceptional creativity of Parkinson's patients two years ago in a review for Behavioral Neuroscience. Since then, she has conducted the first empirical study to verify a link between Parkinson's disease and artistic inclination.

That empirical study, now published in the Annals of Neurology, definitively demonstrates that Parkinson's patients are more creative than their healthy peers, and that those patients taking higher doses of medication are more artistic than their less-medicated counterparts.

"It began with my observation that Parkinson's patients have a special interest in art and have creative hobbies incompatible with their physical limitations," said Prof. Inzelberg. "In my last paper, I reviewed case studies from around the world and found them to be consistent.

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Throughout the testing, Parkinson's patients offered more original answers and more thoughtful interpretations than their healthy counterparts.

In order to rule out the possibility that the creative process evident in the hobbies of patients was linked to obsessive compulsions like gambling and hoarding, to which many Parkinson's patients fall prey, participants were also asked to fill out an extensive questionnaire. An analysis indicated no correlation between compulsive behavior and elevated creativity.

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The conclusions from the second round of testing — in which the Parkinson's participants were split into higher- and lower-medicated groups — also demonstrated a clear link between medication and creativity. Parkinson's patients suffer from a lack of dopamine, which is associated with tremors and poor coordination. As such, they are usually treated with either synthetic precursors of dopamine or dopamine receptor agonists.

According to Prof. Inzelberg, the results are hardly surprising, because dopamine and artistry have long been connected. "We know that Van Gogh had psychotic spells, in which high levels of dopamine are secreted in the brain, and he was able to paint masterpieces during these spells — so we know there is a strong relationship between creativity and dopamine," said Prof. Inzelberg.

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